Posted by
ScottG on Monday, January 08, 2007 12:41:27 PM
The Dallas Morning News reports that a Texas Pizza chain that claims a 60 percent Latino customer base has decided to accept Mexican Pesos as payment. The paper reports that Pizza Patron believes it's a service to their customers. "Restaurant experts and economists said they knew of no other food chain with locations so far from the Mexican border offering such a service. 'We're trying to reach out to our core customer,' Antonio Swad, president of Pizza Patrón Inc., said Friday. 'We know they
come back (yeah, right....) [from Mexico] and have pesos left over. We want to be a convenient place for them to spend their pesos.'"
Catering to their customers, but who are their customers who might have pesos in hand? Not likely returning visitors, but illegal aliens. Lest you think this might bother the owners, Swad clearly states that it doesn't, and he really doesn't care whether anyone likes it or not. "Mr. Swad said he's prepared to take heat from American consumers who might be offended by the bypassing of greenbacks. 'We're not really interested in finding the safest spot on the board,' Mr. Swad said. About 60 percent of Pizza Patrón customers and 45 percent of the franchisees are Latino. 'We know the purity of our intention, and we're willing to take the heat when there is heat.'" What purity? Knowingly operating a business that caters to those who may be in the country illegally and allowing the use of foreign currency? Hardly pure at all, and why? Because the company is overcharging the buyers! The current exchange rate is under $11/peso and our heroes are charging $12/peso. They claim that it's to cover the cost of converting the funds.
Too bad for Pizza Patron, but a little internet and phone searching discovers that, according to a Jane
(name changed to protect source) at Wells Fargo Foreign Exchange,
Wells Fargo account holders are charged nothing to process a forex transaction. Oooops!
Non account holders are charged $5 per transaction for any amount. Oooops again! Now Pizza Patron may not be a Wells Fargo customer, but the charge is minuscule compared to the amounts they must bring in. So it seems our little friends at PP are overstating the cost to themselves of their heroic service to the little guy with a handful of pesos. As usual with those who purport to serve the interests of the "minority communities", we see their actions seemingly aren't quite filled with the "the purity of our intention" as they piously claim.
The head for the story ought to be changed to "Pizza Chain Takes Pesos, Women and Minorities Hardest Hit." But then again, it's almost always about the money. Nothing wrong with making profit, but claiming to be servicing their client base and then possibly making a profit from it smacks of the highest hypocrisy. How soon before their peso using clients catch on? If they have to wait for the mainstream media to report it, perhaps never.
Tagged As:
DallasForexPizza PatronLawPoliticsBankingIllegal Immigration